How a returning champion is feeling at home again in the BTCC

He was always a wiry chap anyway. But blimey, he’s looking trim at the age of 42. That’s Gordon Shedden, three-time British Touring Car champion, one of the country’s greatest front-wheel-drive tin-top battlers of all time, the guy who’s making a return to the BTCC this weekend at Thruxton after three years away. The Scot who’s back in his adopted Midlands family of Team Dynamics.

Shedden is relaxing with Autosport on a beautiful sunny April day at Silverstone, next to the humble little camper van (insert joke about Scots being frugal here) that he’s driven down from home in Fife. It’s lunchtime on the BTCC media day, and three hours later his Honda Civic Type R will lay down a marker on an end-of-day performance run that leaves rival eyes watering and the famous #52 at the top of the times. Yeah, he’s back in the groove already.

The funny thing is, Shedden should have returned for at least some races in 2020 following his largely unsuccessful two seasons in the World Touring Car Cup with Audi team WRT. But then COVID struck and, paradoxically, allowed someone to get better…

“That’s the kind of weird and wonderful thing,” he laughs. “When Matt [Neal] had his argument with the tree, and the tree won significantly, I had a couple of days’ testing in the car. Had the world not changed the way it’s changed, and we’d started the season on time, with the best will in the world there’s no way Matt would have been able to start the year.”

Neal recovered from those cycling injuries to line up alongside Dan Cammish, but Shedden describes his hors d’oeuvres in the Civic FK8, which he had never driven before, as “I guess a bit of a spark. It was really good for me to get back in with a team that I trust, with a product which is right and correct, and it was also really good for the team that those days were an eye-opener, because they immediately had my data, and they were like, ‘OK, if anyone had any doubts that I’d forgotten how to drive for a couple of years in WTCR, those doubts were gone’. And they were, ‘OK, we know we can work with this again’. So it kind of started from there.”

Gordon Shedden, Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

But the winter of 2020-21 was a tough one for Dynamics. Honda pulled its official support, so did sponsor Yuasa (there is some shared ownership between the two companies). Halfords stayed on board, and wanted Shedden. But Dynamics chief Neal was working on an additional backer, which could have resulted in himself, Shedden and Cammish as a Civic superteam. Trouble is, a third TBL entrants’ licence was required for that. Series promoter TOCA felt obliged to put it to a teams’ vote as to whether Dynamics should acquire the spare TBL, and not enough teams said yes…

“It was a little bit hands to the pump to try and pull things together,” recalls Shedden. “There was a massive effort to get three cars full stop. It’s definitely a chapter for the book, and probably about six chapters for Matt’s book, because it was hell trying to piece it together. For many reasons out of our control it didn’t happen, and some of it, you know, perhaps wasn’t the most sporting, and some of it beggars belief.”

"But Matt… what a perfect team boss to have, because he’s been there, seen it, done it in the most recent of times. He’s drawn on his experience, and that’s the thing: you can’t leave any stone unturned, and the great thing with Matt is that he calls a spade a spade" Gordon Shedden

The upshot was the arrival of Dan Rowbottom, with his sponsor Cataclean entering a new relationship with Halfords, and the exit of not only three-time champion Neal, but also Cammish. Shedden, therefore, is leading the Dynamics charge in a car he’s never raced.

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“It’s a different car from the FK2 that I finished with,” he says of the FK8 Civic. “I’ve kind of tried to think about it, because people say, ‘Oh, how’s it different? Is it better? Is it worse?’ And I say, ‘Well it’s very obviously from the same family, it’s just got a different heartbeat’. What works with one isn’t quite what works with the other.

“But straight away it was great, and it felt like an old pair of slippers. Everything was where I wanted it to be. It just felt right. And of course going back with Dynamics, all the right people, all the same people, friendly faces, it was just everything I needed.”

Gordon Shedden, Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Well, not quite all the same people. Veteran engineer Eddie Hinckley, the brains behind the three ‘Flash’ Gordon titles, moved into semi-retirement upon Shedden’s departure. So it’s now Dynamics technical chief Barry Plowman on duty. Plowman has worked with Neal since the 1990s, so it’s a departure for both men, with Shedden’s lofty fellow three-time champion focusing solely on his team-principal role. What’s he contributing?

“He’s just in a ‘give-me-lots-of-abuse role’ at the minute!” chuckles Shedden. “But Matt… what a perfect team boss to have, because he’s been there, seen it, done it in the most recent of times. He’s drawn on his experience, and that’s the thing: you can’t leave any stone unturned, and the great thing with Matt is that he calls a spade a spade. When you don’t get a lot of praise from him, you certainly know that you’re not delivering, and you do everything you can to make that as minimal as possible, you know? But he’s a good mate as well as a team boss. It’s just that where previously I would only get abuse in the truck, now I can get it over the headset as well when the race is happening. But it’s ideal.

“Obviously, Matt had Barry as his engineer from day dot back to the Nissan Super Touring car, so they have an incredibly close relationship. And I have that close relationship with Matt. Sometimes it’s him giving his nuggets of information to Baz to say, in their kind of speak, and that’s great as well.”

Neal, who has left the door open for a return to the driving seat in future, admits that “it’ll be different” not to be on the grid for the BTCC opener. Since 1992, only once has he not lined up for the start of a campaign. “At the moment I’m fairly relaxed about it, and I’m cool, but I’m sure it’ll be different come the first race and I hear the engines going at the start,” adds the 54-year-old.

Neal, of course, is the only person in the Dynamics fold to have raced the Civic FK8.

“That’s why I’m here not as a team principal so much, as more of a sounding block,” he admits. “I’m not coaching – they don’t need coaching per se. One, I’ve driven a variety of different things over the years, and that builds up your portfolio of knowledge. Flash has driven the FK2 a lot, but it is different to the FK8, so I’m trying to help them both [Shedden and Rowbottom] along the way.

“Joking apart, I learned things off Cammish. I like to think I taught him a lot about racing in touring cars and stuff, but I did also learn off him – he’s incredibly naturally quick. And it’s trying to transfer some of that knowledge across to these two, from my bank and Cammo’s bank.”

The enforced departure of Cammish, who is returning to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, still rankles with Neal, but he stresses that the Yorkshireman is “still part of the family. We all love Dan – there’s not one member of the team who didn’t get on with him. He was like our pet!”

Matt Neal, Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R Dan Cammish, Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

So, what chance a Neal comeback in 2022?

“I’ve got to take a rain check on how the team performs this year, because the last few years I felt my role changed. Where I used to be the sort of leader from the front, I settled into the place of being the steadying of the ship and letting Flash or Cammo go for the glory. And I didn’t mind that, I enjoyed that actually. It was sort of a role that Steve Soper did very well and professionally, and I idolised Steve – I think he’s the ultimate touring car driver of all time. So let’s see what happens with the performance and how I feel at the end of the year.

“You know, it is stressful, the going out in the car, and it’s more relaxing coming here at the moment, because when you’re driving you’re worrying about the track, the car, the engine, the tyres, and optimising everything. And where it is at the moment I can just chip in my penny’s worth and let them do the worrying.”

"As we stand here just now, I’ve got as good a chance as anybody else. I’ve not been brought back here to make up the numbers. Our purpose is to be as competitive as possible out of the box" Gordon Shedden

Is Shedden worrying? He doesn’t seem to be, but he’s a terrier of a bloke who’s rarely projected any hint of vulnerability to the outside world. But with his other hat on, as business development manager of Knockhill circuit, there are concerns. Shedden is part of the royal family of Scottish motorsport, with father-in-law Derek Butcher the owner of Knockhill, and brother-in-law Rory set to be at the BTCC sharp end in a Speedworks Motorsport Toyota. Come the series’ mid-August visit north of the border, it’s not inconceivable that Shedden and Butcher could both be in the title fight, so it’s vital for the circuit to be able to admit spectators.

“First things first, we have to have a crowd back,” says Shedden. “We’re desperate for it. As a business we’ve missed it so much. It’s only when you don’t have something, you realise what it means to you, and for us the crowd is just insane. The Scottish public only have one chance to see touring car racing a year and, having not been able to attend last year, believe me we are doing everything to get the support of the Scottish government and Motorsport UK to allow that to happen.”

Why not offer to make Nicola Sturgeon a VIP?

“We’ll do anything at the minute. Maybe if we’re not allowed a crowd, we’ll get special dispensation to put her in as a passenger for success ballast and see how she likes that! But it’s so important for the country. We’ve all had 12 months of hell. You know, we’ve got 240 acres on the top of a hill in Fife – it has to be one of the safest places in Scotland to watch an event.”

BTCC Start Rory Butcher, Motorbase Performance Ford Focus

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Looking shorter term, the BTCC kicks off at Thruxton this weekend, and that’s a track where the Civic has always excelled – in FK2 and FK8 format.

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“Yeah I’m not unhappy that we’re starting at Thruxton…” muses Shedden. “Obviously I haven’t been there for three years though, with no testing there, so that makes it difficult. But there are other places I’d have preferred it not to start at, that’s for sure.”

And that could be the ideal launchpad for Shedden’s bid for title number four: “As we stand here just now, I’ve got as good a chance as anybody else. I’ve not been brought back here to make up the numbers. Our purpose is to be as competitive as possible out of the box. Of course the championship is the aim, but you need a bit of luck and you need the cards to fall your way to help that happen. But if we do everything that we can do, if we can be on the front foot, if we can go to every round knowing that we’ve done the best that we possibly can, then what will be will be.”

Just over three hours after the interview, Autosport wanders over to the Dynamics pit to try to grab a quick word with Shedden about his test-topping performance. But within 10 minutes of the session finishing, he’s already behind the wheel of that wee camper and setting off for Fife. Several hours later still, Neal tweets “was cool day for me but kind of surreal drive home not feeling the usual post event mental drain”.

Shedden replies “only two and a half hours left on my drive home” during a stop for coffee. No purple sectors on his run north of the border, but watch out at Thruxton.

Gordon Shedden, Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images